This
book examines how the growing knowledge of the huge range of animal-bacterial
interactions, whether in shared ecosystems or intimate symbioses, is
fundamentally altering our understanding of animal biology. Individuals from
simple invertebrates to human are not solitary, homogenous entities but consist
of complex communities of many species that likely evolved during a billion
years of coexistence. Defining the individual microbe-host conversations in
these consortia, is a challenging but necessary step on the path to
understanding the function of the associations as a whole. The hologenome
theory of evolution considers the holobiont with its hologenome as a unit of
selection in evolution. This new view may have profound impact on understanding
a strictly microbe/symbiont-dependent life style and its evolutionary
consequences. It may also affect the way how we approach complex environmental
diseases from corals (coral bleaching) to human (inflammatory bowel disease
etc). The book is written for scientists as well as medically interested
persons in the field of immunobiology, microbiology, evolutionary biology,
evolutionary medicine and corals.
Edition
Language
Place of publication
Publishing group
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Research
Illustrations
6 farbige Abbildungen, 51 s/w Abbildungen
X, 155 p. 57 illus., 6 illus. in color.
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
ISBN-13
978-3-7091-1894-8 (9783709118948)
DOI
10.1007/978-3-7091-1896-2
Schweitzer Classification
Thomas Bosch is Professor of General Zoology at Kiel University since 2000. His awards include the Dr. Honoris Cause Degree from St. Petersburg State University, Russia. The Bosch lab studies within others the evolution of immunity, by analyzing the molecular interactions between microbes and host (Hydra) cells that promote normal development and homeostasis. David Miller is an outstanding world-renowned scientist at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and School of Pharmacy and Molecular Sciences, James Cook University, Australia, where he is heading the program on genomics and metagenomics of coral reefs. The long-term aim of this Program is to understand how the "holobiome" functions under normal and stressed states.
1. Introduction.- 2. The diversity of animal life.- 3. Origin stories.- 4. Phylosymbiosis from Hydra to man: novel genomic approaches discover the holobiont.- 5. Negotiations between evolving animals and symbionts.- 6. The Hydra holobiont.- 7. Microbes are part of the innate immune system.- 8. Rethinking the origin of immunity.- 9. The coral holobiont.- 10. Are coral reefs doomed?.- 11. Lessons from Hydra and corals.- 12. Hidden impact of viruses.
